COVID Update
Student vaccination rates continue to rise, and the rate of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County continues to decrease. This is good news and supports our primary goal of ensuring that as many students as possible are able to participate in in-person instruction for as many days as possible. We are also working to ensure safe and healthy classrooms and campuses and to approximate a normal and regular school year as much as possible, despite the COVID variants present in our community. These are all good goals; at the same time, they will sometimes compete with each other as we implement our educational programs and daily instruction, and we must mediate the tension between them to find the right balance for our schools. We are accomplishing this by taking purposeful, coordinated and calibrated steps as we launch important co-curricular, extra-curricular and student and family engagement activities.
As an example, we were thrilled to welcome our many MBX after-school classes back on our campuses the week of September 13. We have been allowing clubs to meet on campus outdoors, and on October 4 will allow them to move indoors.
Pennekamp Elementary held a safe and successful Bingo night and Pacific Elementary did the same with a movie night. We are excited for the upcoming festivities for Homecoming at Mira Costa High School. We have five days planned for school spirit attire, a pep rally, a home football game with halftime show, as well as the “On the Red Carpet” Homecoming dance. Mira Costa students and staff are excited for the week to come! Go Mustangs! We look forward to bringing more and more activities onto campuses throughout the fall.
Modified Quarantine and Masks
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has recently made available to school districts a modified quarantine program which MBUSD began implementing on Monday, September 27. This program directly supports our goal of making sure as many students as possible are able participate in in-person instruction. Under the modified quarantine option, an unvaccinated student who is identified as being a close contact due to exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case while at school can continue in-person instruction at school if the school can verify that both the positive case and the close contact were masked during the entire period of potential exposure. The close contact must be tested periodically and must remain under quarantine at home outside of the regular school day. Our outdoor masking policy at the preschool, elementary and middle school levels is critical to ensuring that we are taking full advantage of the flexibilities provided by the modified quarantine.
COVID Testing
We continue to work towards developing a robust COVID testing program. Beach Cities Health District is providing tests for individuals whom the District identifies as being close contacts or symptomatic of COVID. We have already implemented required testing for unvaccinated high school and middle school athletes, and this week we will began required testing for unvaccinated staff. We have also implemented a voluntary testing program for any staff and students who wish to participate.
Testing is an important part of our effort to mitigate the spread of the virus. For instance, LACDPH strongly recommends that unvaccinated, asymptomatic individuals who were present in a school classroom or school activity with a confirmed case be tested weekly for two weeks (14 days) following the confirmation of the case.
In addition, please note that testing results sent to parents through our voluntary testing program can be utilized not only for school purposes but also to meet requirements for youth sports programs and other activities for which testing results may be needed.
If your student is not already enrolled, we encourage you to provide your consent for them to participate in your school’s on-site weekly COVID-19 testing program. You should have received information from your school site about this program; you can find the registration form here.
COVID and Flu Vaccinations
If your child has been vaccinated, we are requesting documentation of their full vaccination status. This is voluntary, but highly encouraged as this information is helpful in determining whether a student needs to quarantine.
If you have already submitted a copy of your student's vaccination record in paper form to the office or as a student athlete, you do NOT need to re-submit.
All students who are fully vaccinated should complete this MBMS Form or this MCHS Form as soon as possible. Please note you must use your student’s @mbusdapps email address to submit proof of vaccination.
Per the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the following are acceptable for proof of vaccination:
- COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card (issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, or WHO Yellow Card, which includes the name of the person vaccinated, type of vaccine provided, and date of last dose administered), or;
- A photo of a Vaccination Record Card as a separate document, or;
- A photo of a student’s Vaccination Record Card stored on a phone or electronic device, or;
- Documentation of COVID-19 vaccination from a health care provider, or;
- Digital record that includes a QR code that when scanned by a SMART Health Card reader displays to the reader student name, date of birth, vaccine dates and vaccine type.
We strongly encourage any eligible student, family member and staff to get vaccinated against COVID. We know that the rate of MBUSD students aged 12-18 who have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine has risen from 89.1% to 91.3% over the last four weeks - this will be extremely beneficial to our community in protecting against infection and reducing the need to require students to stay home to quarantine.
It is also flu season, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recommends that everyone six months and older should be immunized for flu, including healthy children and healthy adults. You can find out how to obtain a free or low-cost flu shot here.
Please tune in to our next MBUSD Regular Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, October 6 at 5:00 p.m. to learn more about today’s announcement by Governor Newsom about a new student COVID vaccination requirement for in-person learning, along with updates about masking, COVID testing and the modified quarantine procedure in MBUSD.
